#whipspider

[platycryptus]

Time-lapse of Paraphrynus cubensis amblypygids hatching from the eggsac attached to their mother’s underside and climbing on her back.

[crevicedwelling]

hello again! still greatly enjoying the critter posts. did some research (read: i googled 2 things) and learned that unlike Scorpions, amblypygi don't fluoresce! that lead me to a couple questions for you (hope that's okay!!) first, i keep getting tripped up on the name. do you know why they're called tailless whip scorpions when they appear to be very different from Scorpion scorpions? and secondly, does graciela fluoresce? if so, do you have any photos? if not, do you have any little guys who do? thank you so much for sharing with us! and sorry for asking so many questions ^^;

in short, Amblypygi are called “tailless whip scorpions” because English is a boring, confusing language and nobody bothered to give them a better name.

I got this phylotree from Wikipedia.

presumably, the name “whip scorpion” came first for thelyphonidans/uropygi, also known as vinegaroons. they have a fairly scorpion-like build: a long body with crushing pedipalp claws (although not pincers like scorpions have). they also have a long whiplike flagellum, which probably earned them their name since their antenniform legs aren’t nearly as whiplike.

(Mastigoproctus tohono, a thelyphonid)

vinegaroons are more closely related to Amblypygi than other arachnids, but amblys look quite different beyond lacking a tail. regardless, “tailless whip scorpion” pretty much means “tailless vinegaroon.”

(Damon medius, an amblypygid)

“tailless whip scorpion” is nonsensical if you consider the flagellum of the vinegaroon to be its “whip,” since then you’d be calling an amblypygid a “whipless whip scorpion.” I’ve also heard amblys called “whipspider,” which is a little better than “tailless whip.”

anyway, the moral of the story is: English is a horrible language to do taxonomy in. Spanish, on the other hand, has many wonderful common names for them:

“guabá” and “canclo” are nice single word names but I like “limpia casas” meaning “housecleaner” since they probably help eat a lot of roaches and pests when they live near houses :)

[onenicebugperday]

Eastern whipspider (tailless whipscorpion) molting and with scorplings, Damon annulatipes

Photo 1 by dherbert and 2-4 by suncana

[ghastlyarachnid]

The joy of seeing a mutual go !! :D over me knowing about the whipspider reminds me that I really need to do that slideshow stream I've been thinking about for a while where I just talk about my favourite weird critters. Mother nature looked at bugs and went you know what? Let's get weird, I'm going to create a little guy that is SO FUNNY

[optimisticrunawayspider]

thge MULTIPLE spider people that dont stick to walls are so mad about the spider-hq being upside down in many places

[bogleech]

Finding this Harvestman and seeing its gangly feeler legs made me think.

Do you know if Harvestmen are more closely related to mites, pseudoscorpions, or whipscorpions / whipspiders? I know they’re all under the Arachnida umbrella, but I know they’re all more distantly related. The sausage-shaped body of a Harvestman reminds me of a mite, but the super-elongated antenna-like second pair of feeling legs makes me think of a whipspider.

It is believed their closest relatives are mites! But it's kind of debatable, and it varies with how you want to define "related;" their similarities are because both are such ancient arachnid groups, they're closer to how some of the very earliest arachnids looked before even modern spiders would have evolved :)

[quark-nova]

my whipspider died :(

rip snippy, i loved you

[tauforged]

thinking about getting a pet bug of some kind in the near future. honestly strongly considering either a centipede or another whipspider

[quark-nova]

Got bitten by a centipede once, the venom spread through a big part of my arm, ended up in the hospital, I still have the scar years later :/

Centipedes are quite cool looking and of course I don't blame people who like them but I just don't want to be close to them since then. (Plus in terms of cool arthropods I already have a whipspider pet ^^)

If you said yes to the first 3 please explain in the tags what animal it was and what was the damage

[platycryptus]

This Acanthophrynus coronatus just molted, and you can see his size compared to his discarded exuvia. He’s huge but still not full grown!

Amblypygids and some other arachnids take on that blue coloration after molting because they have copper-based blood, just like their horseshoe crab cousins. Over the next few days his pale, squishy exoskeleton will harden and return to its normal colors.

[crevicedwelling]

Oh no he’s a whip scorpion I fucked up I love you whip scorpion but not as much as spiders 

you were right the first time, but common names are garbage anyway. whipscorpion more commonly refers to Uropygi aka vinegaroons and not Amblypygi, which are the tailless whipscorpions or whipspiders. but like I said common names are garbage “amblypygi” is better

[arthropodude]

#Phrynidae #Drawing #amblypygid #modernarts #arachnid #sketch #whipspider #creativeart #taillesswhipscorpion #art #subtropical #tropicalinsect #arthropod #nocturnal #amblypygi #arthropodart #entomology #entomologylovers https://www.instagram.com/p/B8BAj7bjmxA/?igshid=sllshsa3ks6k

[quark-nova]

Okay but thanks so much for this post, I was thinking of getting a mantis to replace my lost whipspider (still crying about it), and now I'll double-think about it for the whole feeding thing!

I think people who want to push for more insect consumption should stop trying to push with crickets and instead should push with darkling beetle larva (mealworms, superworms) because crickets smell really bad and have kind of a fishy after taste while mealworms are just really starchy. Mealworms look tastier, smell tastier, and are tastier.

[quark-nova]

Do you have a favorite type of bug? Prehistoric or modern!

For prehistoric bugs, I'll definitely go with radiodonts! I love their silly faces and their flaps!

For modern bugs, my favourite are velvet worms, but my pet whipspider Snippy might get angry if I say this :p

[sabbathercio]

Os amblipígios (aranha-caiandeua ou aranha-violão e internacionalmente de whip spiders (aranha-chicote)) são frequentemente confundidos com aranhas por pessoas leigas e aparentam ser perigosos para maioria do público. Estes animais, de aparência assustadora para alguns, não apresentam qualquer ameaça para os seres humanos, visto que não possuem veneno e se comportam como predadores de insetos, outros aracnídeos e pequenos vertebrados. Os Amblypygi possuem o corpo achatado, grandes pedipalpos providos de espinhos e o primeiro par de pernas extremamente alongado e com função sensitiva. Apresentam hábitos noturnos e podem ser achados vivendo em cavernas, sob ou dentro de troncos, sob rochas, serapilheira e ambientes antrópicos, como o da foto, que apareceu aqui em casa. #biologia #biology #artropodes #whipspider https://www.instagram.com/p/CZYOBoPNJQs/?utm_medium=tumblr

[quark-nova]

used to have a pet whipspider (they're not actual spiders but still related!), it always surprised people a little bit but yeah i'm lucky not to have heard that kind of negative comments. unfortunately she died during a molt :(

Man, THANK you for that pets post! I keep cockroaches and several spiders, and I've even had people who keep mice/reptiles/other less traditional pets talk about how they want to step on or burn my pets. It's really tiring sometimes, I love my roaches but I feel I can't share pictures of them without complete strangers talking about killing them. It's wild that people just don't get how that's incredibly rude and uncalled for??

Its ridiculous!!!!! like if someone says an animal is their pet that OBVIOUSLY MEANS THEY HAVE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION TO IT. if nothing else, even if you only respect humans, respect THAT HUMAN and THEIR EMOTIONS. nevermind cockroaches, spiders, everything has a place in the biosphere and has evolved into that place and therefore is necessary and "good", whatever that is. Like we can't even begin there if people refuse to respect other people. Damn. And I say this as someone with crippling arachnophobia.